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1. Freshman/sophomore..... Should it matter?
2. I don't think we had a scheme.... You can't be behind receivers by 5 yards on every play. The whole middle of the field was wide open for the RB's. I'm shocked it wasn't worse. It was pick your poison. We couldn't defend either.
3. That same team didn't score 42 on Bama. There are 3 first rounders in the pros that were on that team. Johny Football and Mike Evans were great college players.
4. TAMU also played many freshmen.
5. The last 3 years we beat plenty of teams that had and stockpiled talent the recruiting ranking wouldn't have us on the same page with. I'm all about recruiting known talent. What bothers me is the "projects" and under the radar guys that never seem to come out from under the radar. Our success depend on the talent in the state of SC. We got Clowney, Gilmore, Holloman, Swearinger, Alshon, Bruce Ellington, Devin Taylor, Kelcey Quarells and so on to come here from instate and we won. I understand this state doesn't have the numbers of the other states around us but our roster is full of out of state guys that can't beat out freshmen at corner...... I'm not a genius but there's no superstar talent on this team. Absolutely none. I have a problem with that. Like Spurrier said we had very little on the preseason SEC teams. None on the first team. That's uncalled for. I hope we get better but if you think this team will match the last three years you'll be disappointed. The defensive coaching isn't there. They sure can recruit but Play......Na.

1. you said freshman, and yes there's a big difference with another year in the system being a soph.
2. the scheme, if you want to call it that, was to not get beat deep.
3. your right, their 2013 team wasn't as good as this year's team.
4. they have two 5* WR that are every bit as good as Evans.....they have a 5* DE....they just have better players. We didn't play a team last year that's as good as A&M.
5. State of SC talent hasn't been as good lately.
Recruiting has it's ups and downs.....this year isn't going to be great.....it happens. 2015 will be. Why does it bother you for not having a super star. Did you know each year there are only about 20-25 five star players in the whole country.

The only clown here is you. You carried water for this staff despite the very obvious recruiting miscues and now continue to defend them despite getting waxed in the first games due to the very mistakes that were painstakingly made known to you by posters here.

You can't blame the loss solely on recruiting, but to deny that anything I've said - which has been primarily that recruiting academic concerns at positions of need (DE, CB) has harmed us - is relevant to what happened last Thursday is utterly silly.

My posts and predictions speak for themselves. I take no delight in it, but the problems w/ our roster were blindingly obvious to everyone except the most deluded homer.

I don't need any posters on here to point out how terrible our defense was and the mistakes that were made. Also, if you have read any other of my posts, I squarely blamed the loss partly on the coaches for a variety of reasons, namely the 3-4.....way too many new/young players to learn a new defense in a short time especially without us having a DE or OLB to fit that scheme.....and to make matters worse, none of our coaches have a background in the 3-4. However, I don't blame the coaches for recruiting issues.....it's just that some things didn't work out as they had planned.....so I don't blame them for that. Are you saying they knew that Thomas, Sawyer, Wideman, Ritchie and Smalls weren't going to qualify when they signed LOI's in Feb 2014.....if you think that, you're nuts. We've won 33 games the last 3 years, 42 in 4 years, you cannot possibly expect that kind of performance each year, because if you do, your nuts.....oh sorry I already said that.
yes your posts and predictions do speak for themselves.....

That is true if it stays anywhere near what it is now after we go 7-5 or 8-4. Only problem with that is there's a pile of new talent but mostly high school kids. You think we're going to come in and win big with high school kids? We dropped the ball in recruiting and developing a few years back and it's walked up to us and smacked us in the face. I have no doubt we have great coaches and coaching is extremely important but talent is the difference. We are outmatched big time in the SEC. That is clear and present.

if you think we have great coaches, then why did you say they dropped the ball....we've had a top 15 class for each the last 4-5 years....you need to be specific how we dropped the ball. That's a general statement and is meaningless......there are always ups and downs in recruiting.....it isn't an exact science. Every few years, good teams have a down year or two.....and the quality of the recruits we have coming in next year is maybe the best class ever.

we have a good 2015 class.....and the coaches will have to work to keep it intact......try to keep up....

Maybe the OP needs to call Spurrier this Thursday and let him know. I mean it's such a profound line of thought I'm sure he would love to be clued in on what he and the other coaches need to do.

Of course, that's after the OP makes sure to find out how the HBC and Todd are doing. Inquiring minds need to know.

OP: "Hey coach, how are you and Todd doing this evening?"

HBC and Todd: <silence>

OP: "Well, that's good to know. Just wanted to let you know that you coaches are gonna have to work real hard to keep that 2015 class together. Figured you might need to know that. I'll hang up and listen."

HBC and Todd: <more awkward silence> "OK. On to Pete in Irmo."

Pete: "How you guys doin'?"

__________________

"Blindfolded, with his back to the wall, with his hands tied behind him, Steve Spurrier would be a two-point favorite at his own execution."

Just going over our list of 2015 recruits for the first time in a while. It is a nice looking class with some serious studs. Our coaches have done a great job getting commits from some top shelf talent. They will need to work their butts off to keep intact but I'm confident they'll pull it out.

I do not know the insights into recruiting. That is for sure. However, I can do basic math.

With 85 scholarships, and 25 max per year, I would put up a board/spreadsheet with the idea of taking so many DLs, LBs, DBs, OLs, WRs, TEs, RBs, Ks, QBs, etc. per year. I would have a spreadsheet for each year and for the entire team. Inside of that, I would want to put things like size, speed, & other skills so that I could vary those attributes per class (i.e. smaller speedy guys on DL for faster packages, and bigger guys for run packages, etc, like we have had for the last several years). Now I realize that not every kid offered it going to accept, but by the end of the day, I would want to stay close to those numbers per year unless there is no one to fill, let's say a QB, one year. The next year we might have 2 QBs that we might target. Fill the year void of a QB with another position and strike one from there (or somewhere else) the following year.

Had we been doing this, I cannot imagine how we would be in such a position to not have big, thick guys to take up space on the DL to run a 4-3.

One other question...how many years has it been since Beamer left? Are we now seeing issues from his departure? IDK, just putting that out there. Our classes have been good to very good, but the quality of classes does not indicate any voids we may have in positional depth.

Lastly, I am 100% for this team and I believe that we will bounce back quickly. However, I do think that A&M exposed some issues personnel-wise.

We have enough bodies to run a 4-3. We just don't have enough good players to run the 4-3. You're getting bogged down in quantity, and also not realizing that they saw the writing on the wall. You can't MAKE players come here.

There were a number of factors over the past year that contributed to the defensive debacle. Lack of quality depth (i.e. playmakers) on the DL, a very good A&M offensive line, and a talented but very young secondary playing against superb WR's. We couldn't get pressure on the QB due to our DL issues combined with their OL, can't pressure their WR's at the line because they're so much bigger than our DB's. Recipe for disaster. That being said, not everyone's OL or WR or QB will be that good. Hopefully, combined with improvement in our defense due to our coaches doing their jobs, this season can still be a success.